Main Street to ring with gospel sounds

By JAMES CLARK / Editor for the Southern Standard

Members of the singing group the Hopkins Family are, front row, from left, Shirley Neal, Girlene Hopkins, Bonnie Rigsby and Mary Lou Rigsby. Back row, Faye Davis, Laura Dupree and Mary L. Hopkins.

Growing up in a family with 11 children is enough to field a football team. But the Hopkins family turned to music instead of sports as their primary source of entertainment.

“My mother and daddy played all kinds of musical instruments and they taught us,” said Shirley Neal, one of six sisters and five brothers in the family. “We had an old pump organ and she taught us on that. And daddy played banjo and guitar and just about anything.

“We grew up without electricity and with a path to the outhouse. We didn’t have TV so we had to make our own entertainment.”

The Hopkins Family is one of four gospel bands scheduled to play this Friday night in the Main Street Live concert series. Right on Time, the Pelham Family, and One Accord are also scheduled to play on The West Lawn of Security Federal beginning at 7 p.m.

The Hopkins family has its roots in the mountains of Spencer where father Gus Hopkins worked in the coal mines. Neal says the family has always played music together.

“I don’t remember a time when we didn’t,” Neal said. “Now that we’re grown up it’s harder to find time to get together and practice. But our family reunions are usually pretty fun. We even have in-laws who play.”

Neal will be joined singing and playing instruments by her five sisters: Girlene Hopkins, Bonnie Rigsby, Mary Lou Rigsby, Faye Davis, and Laura Dupree. Her mother, Leola Hopkins, is also an active member of the band.

In addition to the sisters, oldest brother Willie Hopkins plays guitar. Shirley’s husband, Morris Neal, plays mandolin, and brother-in-law Johnnie Davis plays bass guitar. Other members of the family might just join in the show as well.

The Hopkins Family will sing traditional gospel songs that will include “Keep on the Sunny Side,” “A Joy Comes in the Morning,” and “Heaven.” After their opening performance, they will return to the stage later in the evening to do a karoake rendition of the Soggy Bottom Boys. Leola Hopkins will also do a Minnie Pearl impersonation.

Right on Time is a relatively new band from Dowelltown, which is in DeKalb County. Singer Sean Driver is joined by his brother Brad Driver on guitar and Danny Hale on mandolin.

The Pelham Family is well know locally, although most people are not familiar with One Accord, a group which was just formed recently.

Four bands in one night will no doubt make for an evening packed full of powerful gospel music.

“You may just need to bring breakfast and spend the night,” joked Shirley Neal.